Big Purple Plant Naming Contest

It was another wonderful Early Music Festival weekend. Thursday evening Tiffy came back to town, and she, Travalon, and I listened to a couple of bands at the Brink Lounge, a folk one headed by the brother-in-law of the Daughter of Denni, and an eclectic one called Common Chord in which the Daughter of Denni plays the clarinet. She and another member of that band also played a couple of medieval tunes in between the two bands. It was really a fun concert.

Friday I took the day off of work and was planning to meet Tiffy and Rich for breakfast, but Tiffy canceled. Rich knew I was free, so there was no getting out of it – I had to do UGGH Club! The other members joined us for working out, but only Rich and I went to brunch afterwards. Then I joined Tiffy and the Daughter of Denni for the Participant Concert of the Early Music Festival, in which the various classes perform pieces they have been working on all week. As always, I am awed by the talent. Then we hung out at the Union Terrace (or, as the sign there says, we “terraced”), and Tiffy suggested we could sing it to the tune of “Here we come a wassailing,” so I made up some words:

Here we go a terracing, beside the lake so blue,

Here we go a terracing, just she and I and you.

That was as far as I got with this masterpiece. Various other people terraced with us, and we sat drinking beer and watching sailboats until it was time for the evening concert, which was a guy reciting Shakespearian sonnets alternating with a recorder and two lutes playing Elizabethan tunes. I have to admit that I slept through a good deal of this concert. Afterwards we went back to the Terrace and listened to the Cajun Strangers.

Saturday Travalon and I went to Crema Café, which is in the strip mall that I am obsessed with, since it is the source of the mysterious lights we could see from the Monona Terrace. We sat outside and had brunch while gazing at the lake, and Travalon had amazing savory waffles. Then we went for a walk at the park from which you can see the little island in Cherokee Marsh. He had to leave for a Steely Dan concert, so I went downtown and found Tiffy, the Daughter of Denni, and various others terracing again. We went to a Mideastern restaurant for dinner before the final concert of the Early Music Festival, which was structured like a day in Shakespeare’s London, so there was morning prayer, morning exercise, midday love, a masque ball… you get the picture. It was so wonderful to hear such a large group perform, and the program was as satisfying as a wonderful multi-course meal. I loved the mixture of sacred and secular pieces, small ensembles and the whole group. Afterwards – guess what – we terraced again. It was such a beautiful night.

Sunday Travalon and I went back to Crema Café to get those savory waffles again, since they were the special all weekend, and OK Cap joined us. Then he and I went to Olbrich Gardens, and I took photos which I will try to post at some point. Of course, now that Ma and Pa Hat are on social media, they have already seen these photos, along with most other regular readers of this blog. Travalon and I also went to Fete de Marquette, the neighborhood festival in the Williamson-Marquette neighborhood where they have French-themed musical acts performing, and we saw my Irish teacher there. She was trying to get me to speak Irish, but I couldn’t do it. If she had only tried French! It would have been more appropriate to the venue. (Her French is very good, and mine is definitely better than my Irish!) Then we went to Rich’s house for the birthday party of the Dairyman’s Daughter. Kathbert, the Single B-Boy, the Rosary Ladies, Prairie Man, and El Vegetariano were among the guests. Travalon always thinks that Rich’s house is too hot, so he and I had brought camping chairs and sat out on the front porch. To our pleasant surprise, the Dairyman’s Daughter, Jilly Moose, and OK Cap also had camping chairs, so a bunch of us sat out on the porch before dinner and listened to funny stories about a farm dog who liked to bite tractor tires. We also tried to think of a name for the new purple cordyline that Catzooks’s friend gave to Rich, since it was getting too big for her house. Some suggestions were Violetta, Klingon Blood Wine, and Zanzibar, but nobody could agree on anything so the plant remains unnamed. I said I usually name my plants after the previous owner, but Rich can’t remember Catzooks’s friend’s name. Kathbert suggested I have another blog contest to name the plant. I believe she has won every one of my blog contests, but even she had no really good ideas at the moment for the plant’s name. So, gentle readers, what would you call a big purple plant that looks kind of like a palm tree? Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments section or email them to me.

Famous Hat